Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Learning to Lease

It’s been a roller coaster of a week! We went and viewed a property on Sunday, took a tour and looked at the layout and talked a little about the lease and what they were looking for. After that we went and drove by a few more places that were for lease and only one was something that we really wanted to take a look inside. That tour is tomorrow.

We decided on Sunday to schedule another meeting for Tuesday to ask more specifics about the property, and we also decided it really wasn’t the property for us, but that we would keep the meeting because we needed the practice. Deciding to come up with a list of questions we needed to/should ask we tasked each other with homework.

Besides the basics of terms, square footage and restaurant equipment questions I felt like I was missing a chunk of information about what to consider when looking at commercial spaces. Thank goodness we have freakishly intelligent friends who actually teach this stuff. I called on my friend Max who inundated me with articles and information and rules to follow when negotiating and considering a lease. After sitting down, powering through the stack with a highlighter, I felt like I was going to be a negotiating wiz! She was that helpful.

So today armed with a three page typed out list of questions we need to ask we are going to our pseudo-lease meeting. I’m really excited even if it is for practice. And we will be better able to ask questions at the property viewing tomorrow, which is one that we both really like.

In other news, our Web Master has been given all of our class descriptions, bios, and we are almost ready to launch our website. We do have our official email though, you can write me at Melinda@portlandsculinaryworkshop.com and my not so silent partner will be there soon. For some reason having a website up feels like we are just a little more legit.

We also have business cards being worked on, letterheads, and other graphics for all sorts of business documents, we officially hired a graphic designer…. And that’s freakin’ exciting too! Stay up with us on our Facebook page, and you will be the first to know when our website is up and running. We are going to be adding more pictures and are maintaining a constant dialogue with our customer base, so join in the fun.

We really haven’t taken enough time to tell everyone thank you for being such a great support network. It has really kept us charged and enthusiastic throughout this process! We owe it all to our fans and we haven’t even taught you anything yet, wait till we get you in the kitchen!!